Much is uncertain about the future of the Cleveland Browns’ running back room.
Nick Chubb was one of the NFL’s premier ball carriers for four Pro Bowl seasons with Cleveland, but he didn’t look the same in 2024 after a devastating knee injury ended his 2023 season after two games. He didn’t get back until Week 7 of this past year, averaged 3.3 yards per carry in eight games after never averaging worse than five yards per carry in any season prior, then sustained a second season-ending injury in as many years with a broken foot in Week 15.
Now, Chubb is a free agent and reportedly unlikely to re-sign with the Browns. Cleveland did, however, re-sign Jerome Ford and select two running backs in the 2025 NFL draft, Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins in the second round and Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson in the fourth.
It’s unclear how the trio will be deployed in 2025. One thing is clear, however: If the Browns need a bell cow, they believe Judkins can be one.
“We feel like he's just a very well-rounded back,” Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry said after draft day two on April 25. “We've obviously been spoiled over the past couple of years, particularly with Nick and Kareem (Hunt). And we feel like he is very much in that mold in terms of skill set. Not necessarily saying that he's going to, with certainty, develop into one of those players. We certainly hope that's the case. But we think that he can be a bell cow runner that can really carry the load for us.”
Judkins certainly flexed bell-cow abilities in his three seasons starring at Ole Miss and Ohio State. He amassed 3,785 rushing yards and 45 touchdowns in his trio of campaigns, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. He proved he could be a workhorse with more than 270 carries in each of his first two years with the Rebels, then proved he could operate out of a tandem when he still amassed more than 1,000 rushing yards sharing the load with TreVeyon Henderson for the Buckeyes in 2024.
While Judkins never had more than 161 receiving yards in a season in college, he feels that’s an element of his game he can flex at the NFL level, too.
“I'm just a back that can do it all,” Judkins said in an interview with the Cleveland Browns Radio Network. “I'm a guy that has great size, good speed, vision, power, elusiveness, great natural athlete. I can catch out of the backfield. Coaches like to put me in the slot because I'm very versatile and I can win one-on-ones with linebackers.”
Judkins’ call to go to the Browns as the No. 36 overall pick in the draft was memorable. He left his family’s TV room after watching the Seattle Seahawks select South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori 35th overall, and when Judkins came back, Berry and Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski were on FaceTime with his mother.
He did clarify, after some lighthearted outside speculation, that he was not in the bathroom when the call was made.
“I got up, went and got something to drink, and I came back and my phone was ringing and there they were,” Judkins said. “My phone was ringing, and my mom, she was showing me, she answered my phone and it was on FaceTime. It was already on there. It was insane.”
Judkins is elated to be another former Buckeye playing for the in-state Browns, even if he hails from Alabama originally. He joins six other former scarlet and gray wearers on Cleveland’s roster in Jerome Baker, Mike Hall Jr., Ronnie Hickman, Dawand Jones, Luke Wypler and Denzel Ward.
“Feels great,” Judkins said at his first Browns press conference. “I got to see Denzel when I first got in the building earlier, and just that feeling of being a Buckeye and getting that feeling of just staying home, you don’t have to go out of state anywhere else, and just getting to keep making my mark here in the state of Ohio. That’s important.”
Conversely, Cleveland felt it got a steal at pick 36.
“Rugged run style, I'm sure a lot of people in this room have seen him at Ohio State this year,” Berry said. “Really a bell cow, versatile runner who can run through you, run by you, run around you. We're really excited to have him available to us at the 36th pick.”
Sampson enters with plenty of production from his time at Tennessee, too. He racked up 1,491 yards at a clip of 5.8 yards per carry with 22 touchdowns in 2024. Then there’s Ford, who had 813 rushing and 319 receiving yards filling in for Chubb in 2023, and though he saw far fewer opportunities in 2024, his yards per carry jumped from four to 5.4 while he contributed 565 yards on the ground.
Stefanski’s job, he said, will not just be to figure out how and how much to incorporate all three, but also how to develop them. Either way, Judkins is a big part of their plans.
“I would point out these guys are young and it's our job to develop them,” Stefanski said. “And they're not finished products. (Judkins) has a very legit skill set right now, and a skill set that we can use when he has the ball in his hands. Whether we hand it to him or throw it to him, we want to use him in a bunch of different ways.”
Judkins’ experience sharing time with Henderson, who also had 1,000 yards for Ohio State during its 2024 national championship run, should help him acclimate to shared reps at the NFL level.
“Super excited (to play with Sampson),” Judkins said. “Coming from a backfield where it’s been another 1-2 punch that I come from, you look forward to that, especially as a team player. Whatever it takes to win, playing alongside other great players, I think that helps.”
Cleveland may not need Judkins to instantly become its bell cow in 2025. But Judkins has already gotten to work preparing to be one.
Q getting work in with the draft hat on is pic.twitter.com/1NNRx1OmlU
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) May 1, 2025
